Darkened Waters
by Fireblazezz
Summary: A Mermaid Swamp RPG Maker Game story (it was not a category ; ;) This highlights the adventures of Rin and her three friends throughout the story of Mermaid Swamp, some added/deleted scenes because of implied Rin x Seitaro. Maybe not enough romance to have the Romance genre, but I hope it will be readable anyway. Personal development (Rin in perticular), tragedy, friendship. Enjoy!
1. Old Man's Mansion

** MERMAID SWAMP **

* * *

**AN: The story of the Mermaid Swamp, with some added, slightly changed and some concealed/deleted scenes of the story throughout the gameplay. I just finished the game, got all endings and suddenly just felt like writing this, mainly because I just wanted to review the epic story, but also because I wanted to try and create a story where you can see everything from – a more detailed version – of Rin's perspective; I know a lot of people really dislike her personality, given that she – not gonna lie – is kind of a foul-mouthed, ill-tempered brat most of the times… but I really wanted to bring out her personal development, because I think that anyone would mature throughout events like in Mermaid Swamp.**

**And I really became a RinTaro fan when I played this… their relationship is so cute and unique, and I totally ship them… so I'm gonna try to make this into a RinTaro story with possibly some added/changed scenes, but we'll see where it goes.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Mermaid Swamp, although I don't see how the mermaids could possibly get any more grotesque even if I did… Mermaid Swamp belongs to its rightful creators: Uri and the English translator VGperson**

**MAJOR SPOILERS FOR MERMAID SWAMP!**

**I hope you will enjoy! Reviews and critique are always appreciated, please tell me what you think! Anything ;)**

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**Old Man's Mansion**

_Rin's POV_

Ok, now I was _really _tired. But maybe it was to be expected; it _had _been a long day after all. And the weather outside was just gloomy; I might as well be staring into a cloud of blurry dust.

I blink tiredly, and my eyelids slowly sink as I glance out the car window without seeing anything but the grey road and the thick and thin trees flashing by, and I hear nothing but the sound of the driving engine; I yawn widely as I drowsily listen to the sound before closing my eyes, feeling myself dozing off as my head becomes blurry and I finally drift into slumber.

…

…

A couple of silvery bubbles of air pass my face and rise to a light green surface above me.

…

… _What the…?_

… _Am I… underwater? What the hell am I… doing…?_

It was obviously a dream, but it was still a very odd one; never before had I dreamt about finding myself all alone underwater like this. I wasn't drowning, though, thank God for that. I couldn't move, though. I was just floating in the water, unable of doing anything but to stare forward; I couldn't even look around to inspect the ocean… or wherever the heck I was.

That's when a shadow emerges from the deep straight ahead of me, and it easily catches my attention. I blink.

… _Somebody there...? _

I narrow my eyes to get a clearer view, but the blasted water ruins my vision and prevents me from making out the thing in front of me. I am not moving. And neither is the shadow.

…

"_Rin!"_

…

"… _up, you…"_

…

"Hey, Rin! Wake up!"

The constant calling brings me back to reality and I force my eyes open to find myself back in the passenger seat in Yuuta's car, head leaning against the cold window and my legs twisted in an uncomfortable angle: I suppress an irritated swear.

"Stop sleeping already, for crying out loud!"

I wince at the sound of that strict, annoying voice, the one that unmercifully woke me up; I know all too well to whom it belongs.

"Ahh, shaddup," I mutter irritably as I slowly turn over in the seat to give Seitaro a dull look. "I was just takin' a nap, that so bad?"

"One hell of a nap!" Seitaro retorts with an arched eyebrow and shoots me back a reproachful gaze. "Yuuka's been driving all the time and you've just been snoozing in the back! Sheesh, not a hint of a lady in this one…" he finishes his sentence with a hopeless sigh.

"Well, not 'xactly interested in being ladylike for an early-balding punk like you!" I huff, offended.

I'm so busy shooting Seitaro disgusted looks at his grey punk hair, I barely notice when Yuka – who is sharing the front seat along with Yuuta, who is driving the car – turns her head to give me a warm smile. Well, I don't notice her until she talks to me:

"Rise and shine, Rin," she says kindly, in the heart-warming way that she always talks. "I'm going to guess you slept well, given you started around noon?"

Well, excluding the weird dream, I guess you could say that. _Wait, I slept _that_ long…?_

"Yeah, but thanks to _baldy here," _I shoot another disgusted look at him, "more of a rude awakenin'."

Seitaro just glares at me, like I'm some ill-bred spoiled brat with whom he needs to fight to keep his temper with; of course that doesn't mean that he can't talk back to me, as confirmed when he replies: "Quit your yammering, Yammerzaki."

Yammerzaki. His silly – one of many – nickname for me: A refined version of my real surname, _Yama_zaki. He doesn't give me the chance to retort to that one, though, because the he turns his back – or rather his side – on me, and switches conversation buddy to Yuuta instead.

"Hey, Yuuta, where are we anyway?" he asks the back of our coconut-haired friend's head. "You said something about 'kicking things into high gear,' but are we in the mountains or what?"

_Yeah, I'd like to know that too now, _I think as I readjust my sitting position with a pained face; I really shouldn't have slept for that long without checking the position of my legs first. But what comes out of Yuuta's mouth next causes me to forget about my stiffened legs entirely.

"… Haha, my bad!" he laughs awkwardly. "I dunno where this is either!"

…_  
_

"Huh? You're telling me we're lost?" Seitaro confronts Yuuta with both eyebrows raised. "Really?"

"Yep! Don't have the first clue where we are!"

… _Idiot. _

"You gotta be kidding," I hear Yuka say. "You said the mountains were a shortcut, so I thought you knew the way…"

Short silence before Yuuta gives us his reply: "Well, I did kinda know at first, but then the fog just got so thick… haha!" he laughs and inhales before he finishes with: "Sorry about that."

…

"'_SORRY?!'"_ I exclaim furiously and ram my leg straight into the back of his seat, causing the whole car to wince. "Whaddya mean 'sorry'?! That ain't FUNNY, shrimpface! This is exactly why I didn't wanna go on no trip in your lousy ol' GPS-less car…!"

"Oww, don't kick the seat…" Yuuta whimpers and removes his hand from the steering wheel to rub his back. "That hurt… I'm really sorry, Rin; I thought for sure I knew the way... But, now what do we do? I can't even see any signs," he continues while frequently glancing outside to catch any trace of a signpost or anything alike. "And we didn't bring any maps either..."

Oh, _fuck _him and his apologies, they were of no use to them now; I let out a frustrated snarl and raise my knee to give the seat another hard kick, when the engine suddenly, completely out of the blue, falls silent and the car gives out some weird noises before it slows down rapidly and eventually stops dead on the road.

I was taken by such surprise that I simply let my knee linger in the air and glare at Yuuta's seat, taken aback and utterly shocked. "... Wha… what just happened?"

Pause.

"… Yuuta, why did you stop?" Yuka asks.

"I… I didn't…!" Yuuta replies, and this time he actually looks troubled. "It just… stopped! Hold on, I'll try the engine…"

I lean forward and watch him as he twists the car key in the keyhole activating the car; the rumbling sound of a starting engine is heard, but it immediately fades again. Yuuta gives it another try, but with the same result. Thereby, none.

"… Ah, crap," Yuuta says. "Think it's totally busted."

I hear Seitaro groan faintly and lean back against his seat. "Are you for real, dude…" As he speaks, I can imagine him rolling his eyes in that know-it-all way he always rolls his eyes, but right now, I myself am too pissed to even care.

"You DUMBASS!" I burst out, giving the seat the awaited second kick, though not as hardly as intended a few minutes ago. "Uugh… Wait here, I'll go out and take a look," I continue moodily and open the car door.

_Jeez, that stupid moron always messes up, _I think irritably as I exit the car and take a few rounds to see if I can find what's the problem with it. I couldn't really blame Yuuta for what had happened though, I mean, it's not like it was he who intentionally stopped the car, but I was probably simply too irritated to see it from that point of view right now.

…

"… Weird," I state to myself as I kneel in front of one of the tires with a deep frown on my forehead. I had searched all the tires for needles, spikes or anything sharp or such, checked if the car had any bumps or cracks, but it all looked just fine to me. My frown grows deeper; the car didn't seem to have taken any damage at all, so then what would have caused the engine to stop? God, I hated it when I couldn't figure things like this out…

I let out a defeated sigh, get to my feet and am just about to open the car door to give my comrades the news when I hear footsteps walking on the muddy ground, and what's worse: they're approaching. I freeze. After a few seconds I slowly turn to stare into the mist concealing the road up ahead whilst trying to ignore my significantly loud heartbeats, but just as expected, the mist is way too thick for me to see anything.

I clench my fists. "S… Somebody there?" I demand loudly. I was almost hoping that no one would answer, though that wish didn't go fulfilled.

But seconds later, the only thing that emerges from the thick mist is an old man, and as the realization strikes me, I let out a relieved sigh; for a second there I'd thought it would be some kind of a freaky monster that was going to eat my soul or something such.

The old man lets out a short, soft chuckle as he stops on the road. "My, my, quite a surprise," he says. "What would you be doing up in these mountains, miss?"

_Just an old coot, _I think. _But dammit, he freaked me out… _There was really nothing threatening about neither him nor the way he spoke, but what kind of a sane person would trust someone who appeared out of nowhere a grey, dull day in the middle of the deserted mountains? Then again, what harm could he do, even if I talked to him? And they _did _need help…

"… We were on a trip, but our car went kaput, so I guess we're stuck," I finally answer.

"That's very unfortunate," the old man replies. "Is there anywhere you can stay?"

"Nah… If we can't get it running, I guess we'll be spending the night in the car."

After I spoke, there was a pause.

"… You needn't do that," the old man continues. "My home is nearby. You can stay there. Even if it's summer, it's quite cold in the nights."

I barely believe what I just heard. "Huh? F… for real?" I exclaim and blink repeatedly. _Hallelujah, sweet Mamma Moo-ya! _"… Uh, well, lemme talk to my buds."

And with that said, I turn around and head back to the car to give my comrades some, hopefully, much, much, _much _happier news.

* * *

My friends gladly accepted the offer, and after scurrying back to the old man, he asked us to allow him to lead the way to his house, and so we did. As we walked, he told us something about that he was a landlord and stuff, but to be honest, I wasn't really paying that much attention, since all I wanted at that point was to get inside of this rumored house of his. But when he'd said "house" I clearly didn't expect to see what I was witnessing ten minutes later.

I. gape. "Sweet _Lord, _this place is HUGE!" I gasp dumbfounded as I gaze up at a _hugene _giant… fuck "house", this was a goddamn _mansion. _"Oh, my god! And you're letting us stay here... Thanks a lot, gramps!"

"Wooow!" I hear Yuuta inhale deeply. "This is awesome; this house's got to be super expensive!"

"Thanks so much for letting us stay here," Seitaro says gratefully as we all, a few seconds later, head for the entrance. "We promise we'll get the car fixed and leave tomorrow."

I don't know about that, but whatever; me and Yuuta get inside before the others, excited and full of expectations as we are; we unintentionally forget that our footwear are completely drenched in mud and filth as we sprint into the building and stomp on the clean, fresh-smelling wooden floor. And the colorful and fluffy carpets.

_And I thought it looked big on the outside, _I exclaim in my mind as we enter the giant building; for Christ's sake, the inside seems almost twice as big. Stunned, I sweep my eyes across and around the giant hallway we're standing in, and I gape in admiration at all the carpets, the paintings on the wooden walls and the long corridors and the dozens of doors. How do you _not _get lost in a place like this?

In a moment, the others get inside too, and the moment they do, Yuka joins our chorus of admiring and shocked gasps and inhales.

"Wow, this place really is huge," she says as she spins around a few turns on the spot while viewing our surroundings. "You must be very rich, mister."

Gramps chuckles at that. "Haha… well, rich enough to be ashamed of the state of this old place, perhaps."

He then turns to the left and starts walking. "Come along, and I'll show you to your rooms," he says and waves us along.

Excited to get my own room and to see what it looks like, I follow Gramps' lead as he shows my comrades to their rooms first: They're all on the first floor; Yuuta's is in the eastern part of the mansion, Yuka's is the one next to it, followed by Seitaro's room on the western part, and the last room, probably mine, in the very western corner of the mansion.

"You can use this room, ms. Rin," Gramps says as he welcomes me inside. "Forgive the old-fashionedness…"

Come on, like I'd care about that; this place was awesome. "It ain't nothin'!" I reply cheerfully. "I kinda like the whole retro thing. Thanks again, Gramps!"

"Not at all," he smiles. "But I'm sure you're all hungry, aren't you? I'll cook you some dinner. Until then, make yourself at home."

_You bet I will! _I nod, and he leaves.

And the moment the door firmly closes behind him, I spin around and dance across the room to my bed, let out a loud, cheerful and pleased sigh and allow myself to fall flat onto the fluffy mattress. I inhale the smell of old cotton – and nearly choke myself doing so – before I turn over to lie on my back and stare up at the ceiling.

"'t's like sleepin' in a hotel," I point out as I stare up at the wooden planks and the green lamp hanging from the ceiling. I pick up my cell phone from my pocket and unlock the screen. "'xcept no Wi-Fi."

I look closer at the screen and notice the little red-colored bar in the top-right corner. "Out of battery?" I get up and search the room for an electrical outlet; luckily I find one, and I plug in my charger and put the cell on the ground. "That should do it."

As I let go of my cell and rise, I cast a glance out the window to discover a huge swamp outside, out in the garden just by the mansion, surrounded by old, rotting trees.

"Huh. Didn't pay attention to that when we got here," I mutter as I approach the window and lean my forehead against the cold glass. "Does not look worthy to take a swim in," I conclude upon inspecting the fluid's surface. "All murky and shit…"

I stand in silence for a while, before I decide that I have been standing still for too long. I'd like to see more of this house, so I turn on my heels and exit my room.

As I walk in the hallway and pass what I presume is the kitchen, the wonderful and extremely tempting smell of fried meat oozes out through that of a small door chink. I can't help but to give the door a light push to widen the chink and peek inside, and I find the old man frying some bigass, yum-yum steaks in two frying pans.

I bite my lip: Watching him cook made me realize just how hungry I am, so I continue on to check the other rooms, and as I out of curiosity and boredom open one of the many doors, I just happen to barge in on Seitaro, who winces and lifts his head from a book as I enter. When he realizes that it was me, he first looks relieved, but then he just looks somewhat annoyed. Perhaps I startled him?

"Jeez, Rin, don't just barge in on people like that," he scolds me after looking up and gives me an accusing glare.

Serves him right for waking me in the car and calling me names (not that he usually doesn't.) "Why? Did I scare you?" I reply with a shrewd sneer.

Upon saying that, Seitaro opens his mouth and looks like he is about to retort something ugly, but the following second he seems to change his mind and pays me nothing but a nonchalant sigh and returns to his book. Always the mature one, huh.

"Well, I didn't intend to, ya know," I continue when he doesn't pay any more attention to me. "I wanted to explore the mansion, cuz I was bored."

"So you decided to barge into my room for the sake of your own selfish amusement?"

"I didn't know this was your room."

He tears his eyes from the book's pages and casts me a glance. "You were there when the old man installed me here."

... Oh, yeah... well; I shrug. "This place is big. I forgot."

Seitaro rolls his eyes. "Blame it on the size of the house, yes."

"Oh, shaddup," I snap.

After I while, I walk up to him. "Whatcha doin'?" I ask childishly.

"It's called reading," the grey-haired punk replies. "You should try it sometime."

That makes me bite my lip; I _really _want to snap back at him, but I realize that he just proved a point I can't oppose: Goddammit, the all-knowing moron knew that I didn't… _prefer_ reading a lot. Not that I wasn't good at it, but… well… yeah, it... never worked for me that good, so to speak. But he didn't have to throw it back in my face like that.

He seems to notice that I got a little hurt at his remark, because he closes the book and looks up at me. "I was joking, you know? Hey. Yamamonkey."

That brings me back and I give him a childish jab on the shoulder, making him whimper in mock fear. "Oww, that hurt! Please don't hit me, Yamazaki-chan!"

"Shut up, you!"

I let out something between an irritated snarl and a groan and turn to examine one of the shelves instead; I'd checked the shelves and the drawers in my own room, but they had all been empty. Apparently these were too. But the old man had mentioned that he lived alone here, hadn't he? So maybe he didn't have any particular use for these rooms... and that in turn might be the reason for letting them stay here?

"It's not _that _old, actually," Seitaro suddenly speaks.

I turn back to him with a questioning face, in the middle of poking a star-shaped ball of dust. "What is?"

"The mansion. But you see the other building out back?" he nods toward the back. "Now _that's _old."

I blink. "Huh? There's another mansion out here?"

Seitaro nods. "The old man told me they built this one a generation ago since the other one was fallin' apart," he explains.

"… Huh…"

I had no idea that there even was another mansion… holy shit, how does Gramps afford to keep these?! How many does he even have? He might as well have like six more stored deeper in the mountains as far as I'm considered. Ok, maybe that's a little too much… but still, _two HUGE _mansions have got to be pretty damn expensive, especially for one guy. What Yuka said about him being rich must have been true.

When I'm bored of examining the empty shelves and the fairly odd dust balls, I come to think of the swamp as my gaze settles upon the window, and I suddenly feel like wanting to explore _it _instead of this boring room.

"… You know what, I think I'll go out to get a clearer view of the swamp."

As I said it, it sounded kind of weird, but whatever. After I spoke, I turn on my heels and head toward the door. "Oh, and I think dinner's ready soon, by the way," I add as I turn the doorknob.

"Oh, good. I'm really hungry," Seitaro replies as he opens his book once again, and I definitely have to agree on that one. I shut his door behind me.

I wanted to check in on the others before I went out, though, so instead of searching for the exit, I simply open another randomly picked door. Yuka seems happy to see me as I enter her room; it took a while for me to find it, since I had forgotten that all our rooms were next-door to each other.

"Hey, Rin," she smiles at me from the other end of the room. "Are you satisfied with your room?"

I nod as I walk up to her where she's standing by her drawer, checking herself out in the oval placed on top of it mirror. "Uh-huh, you bet. But… _hey," _I exclaim as I discover a dresser beside the window. "You've got a dresser in your room. Nice, I ain't got one in mine."

The dresser - not to mention the rest of the furniture - must really be incredibly antique, considering the designs of them, and that just seemed to make the whole house look cooler; the old-fashioned decorations and the atmosphere inside of these old walls were really superb, actually. It almost felt like they had traveled back in time or something such, to an old castle – mansion – full of weird, old stuff, and and old landlord as host…

"Great design, isn't it?" Yuka smiles at the dresser, interrupting my thinking. "No worries: You can come over and do your make-up in the morning if you want to."

"Aww, sweet," I make a mental victory pose. "Hey, thanks a bunch!"

Yuka giggles; goddammit, she's always so cute when she giggles. Hey, I'm not jealous at all, and I'm not saying that in the "romantic" kind of way, I'm just saying that my friend is really sweet, both on the outside as well as the inside. She always was, ever since I met her in kindergarten. She had been the only one who had managed to stay patient and keep her temper with me… I think most other kids back then (all of them) couldn't tolerate me because of my… temper. Or rather because of my _unique personality; _heck, I don't even know how I managed to befriend Seitaro and Yuuta. Especially Seitaro, that grumpy know-it-all.

Yuka must've noticed that I was drifting off into imagination-and-nostalgic-memory land, because out of the blue she suddenly gives me a friendly nudge on my arm. "Hey, you awake, daydreamer?"

"Haha." That was such a lame joke – if it even was a joke at all – I just felt like retorting with something, so I make a poor imitation of my friend's way of giggling, looking more like a freaky clown rather than a cute girl doing so, and Yuka replies with a teasing shriek and a playful push. And then, for some silly and weird reason, we just stand there and laugh at nothing at all for a while.

We lean against each other's heads and look out the wide window as we eventually slowly calm down and catch our breaths.

And then we just stand there in silence for yet another while, staring at our reflections in the clear window glass. Upon observing them, I verify that our hairstyles are really the exact opposite of each other: Yuka has short, straight pitch-black hair with a slight shade of blue, while my hair is long, blonde and curly. She has kind, chocolate brown eyes and I have mean blue ones.

I silently watch us in the window glass; beyond us was the big, murky swamp, lying quiet and peacefully outside the mansion, surrounded by moist, thick shrubberies and dark, spooky old trees.

"… Don't you think it's a little creepy?" Yuka asks after a while.

"Huh?" I raise an eyebrow. "The swamp? Nah, not really. Do you?"

Yuka let out a short sigh and rolls her eyes. "Oh, come on, in _all _horror stories, places like this are always just full of mystery and danger… especially swamps and such," she replies with a smirk. "You know, ghosts, monsters, crooked men, sandmen, fairies…"

"Yeah, yeah—"

"… dwarfs, beef jerky bears, clowns, spider pigs…"

"I get it, Yuka."

"And the list goes on."

My turn to roll my eyes. "Come on, you seriously believe in jibber-jabber like that?"

Yuka gives me a mysterious look. "Well… you never know…" she ends her sentence with a spooky smile that grows wider and wider and eventually becomes really freaky, making me give her a gentle and playful slap on the cheek.

"Stop it, you're so ugly!" I giggle. "Of course I'm not afraid of monsters when I've already got one right here."

"_Rin! _You're so mean!" Yuka gasps overdramatically and I proceed in laughing, as does she, and we continue to laugh until my stomach hurts so much that I feel like I'm going to barf.

"_Hahahahah…!_ Hahah… Hah…! Ok, ok, we… _hah…_ we really need to stop now, or –_phhh – _my stomach will start bleeding," I giggle and manage to take a deep breath.

Yuka forces herself to a strained nod. "Yeah, I think you're right… Oh, god, what were we even laughing at?" she continues to smile, shakes her head a little and walks over to sit down on her bed; she inhales deeply. "Jeez, I think I need to rest a little…"

I smile and arch an eyebrow at her. "Yeah, sure. Defeated by laughter, what an honourable way to end a fight."

"_What _fight, silly?" Yuka giggles; her cheeks are deep red by now. "Seriously, Rin…!"

"Sorry, champ," I smile at her. "I'll leave you to rest now," I give her the OK-sign and head out, still clutching my stomach and constantly inhaling and exhaling to catch my breath.

* * *

**R&R and tell me how it was… if you want anything changed or added, if it was awful, good, stupid idea, anything. Feedback is always appreciated here^^**


	2. Mermaid Swamp

**Mermaid Swamp**

_Rin's POV_

"Rin? That you?" Yuuta's voice asks from the other side of the door I just passed, and I jump to the obvious conclusion that it's the one that Yuuta was installed in; he must've heard me make my choking noises which I got from laughing so much just a minute earlier, in Yuka's room.

"Yeah," I reply as I change direction toward his room and completely carefree jerks the door open and enters the room. "It's me."

Yuuta is standing by the window at the opposite end of the room when he faces me with his usual enthusiastic expression on his childish face. "Hey, Rin. Thought it was you." When he sees my face and my slightly odd stance, he gives me a hasty observation before remarking: "Did you choke on your tomatoes?"

'_The heck did that come from? _I blink, repeatedly. "What? No!" I reply, a little taken aback. "No, I've just been laughing a lot… kind of… earlier."

His face was _so _hard to read sometimes, but he seemed just as cheerful and naïve as ever. "Oh, that must be nice," he says, "to get deep-red cheeks from laughter… Wish I could do that more often."

"Well, it doesn't happen very often," I say with a shrug as I walk up to him. "At least not to me. 'Chadoin'?" I add and throw a glance over his shoulder.

He turns back toward the window with a dreamy look on his face as I stop by his side. "See that swamp outside? It looks really big… Maybe I'll go swimming tomorrow?" he suggests with a hopeful look in my way.

I give him a wrinkled nose and an arched eyebrow in response. "Well, stay away from me after that, 'cause you're gonna reek pretty bad."

Probably could've responded with something nicer, but hey, it was Yuuta I was talking to, am I right? He just grins, though.

"Hahaha, yeah you're probably right," he says. "But hey, considering the swamp;" yet again, he nods outside, "I think there's some kind of rock out there by the shore, with letters carved into it or some such."

He nods outside and I glance out the window toward the swamp; and indeed, there is some kind of beige old stone monument standing just by the murky sludge pit, and you can actually make out the tiny black writings even from over here. "Well, whaddya know…" I mutter with yet another raised eyebrow. "… I think I'll actually go out to check on that; pretty much seen everything interesting there is to see inside by now."

"Uh-huh, ok," Yuuta nods without taking his big brown eyes off of the window as I abandon his side and exit the room. "See ya."

As I exit the mansion, the air is just as foggy as it was when we arrived here, and it's surprisingly quiet around the swamp.

"But hey, that is one really big swamp," I mutter as I approach the shore with light steps. As I reach the edge, I carefully lean forward to glance down into the dark water: It really is so murky that you can't see the bottom. It could be bottomless, to be honest; it wouldn't surprise me. Tufts of slimy grass are scattered around the swamp and rest peacefully upon the surface, and for a split second, I think that I catch the faintest glimpse of the silhouette of a fish's fin out in the dark waters. Slightly distasted, I sneak up to the stone monument, rune, or whatever it is. The writings are written with some kind of black liquid; assumingly ink, but it is old and faded, and some of the letters have been scraped away; I have to narrow my eyes to distinguish the inscription.

I try to utter the words. "Uhh… 'a man did ab… abduct from the seashore…'…" God, I _always _fumble with words as I read, it doesn't matter what kind of script it is. _Always._ "… 'abduct from' – Crap, I can't read this!"

I vaguely resist the urge to slap my forehead and groan, but instead I just sigh dejectedly and place my hands on my hips to give the rock a glare in antipathy.

"… Well, maybe Seitaro'd know more about this stuff," I point out after a moment of pondering. "He's got more knowledge than he knows what to do with."

With that said, I am just about ready to turn on my heels and march back inside, when I am utterly startled by the voice that speaks to me the next second from behind: "Curious about the monument?"

With an appalled gasp I spin around, and by reflex I back up straight into the rock to lean my soar back against it when I realize who it was that just spoke; and with the relief and the drop of heartbeat comes the frustration: "_Jeez, _old man! God…! You… you've got to not do that; scared the crap outta me."

The old man raises his fuzzy grey eyebrows at me, clearly not anticipating my reaction. "Oh, my apologies," he says, and then he pauses for a short moment before speaking again: "… Did you read the inscription?"

I too raise my eyebrows and give my head a slight shake. "Nah. Or well, yeah, but I couldn't make heads or tails of it… What's it say?"

The old man's answer lingered on his dry lips for a while, but then he met my eyes; I'm not sure, it could've been a delusion of the mist, but there was something about his face expression that seemed slightly… off.

"… It is a legend that is told around here," he finally answers, and I swear that his voice differs a little from just a moment ago. "The legend of the so-called Mermaid Swamp."

As he uttered the name, I swear to God that the atmosphere suddenly changed, and a chilly breeze swept across the water surface and brushed our skins; it gave me the spooks, and I instinctively move my hands up to hug my own arms. "… Legend?"

The old man nods and turns sideways to stand to gaze across the swamp. "Yes. It originated in the middle of the Meiji era… My family has governed this area since around that time," he explains. "… It is said that the son of a leader descended the mountains down to the seaside, and discovered a mermaid."

_Hang on and wait a minute… A "mermaid"? _I just had to doubt that. "… Sounds shady right outta the gate," I remark.

But instead of a cool retort, I receive a soft chuckle from the old man. "Haha… Well, it is a legend…"

I arch an eyebrow, but then I recall some things and promptly decide that after what this old coot has done for us this evening, I can actually bother to pay him the attention that he deserves, so instead of talking back I shut my mouth and patiently wait for him to continue – believe me, to "patiently wait" is not something that I can handle very often –.

"… The man was so smitten with the mermaid's beauty that he took her to his mountain home. He created a fishtank for her to live in… And he filled it with water from this very swamp."

_Ok, now _that _is just creepy._

"But a mermaid of the sea cares not for swamp water," Gramps continues. "The mermaid grew weak, and became quite ugly: Her clear skin swelled, her scales fell off, and her voice as melodic as ringing bells was reduced to a beastly howl." He made a short pause, assumingly to let it sink in. "… The mermaid took on a most repulsive form… and subsequently died."

Another pause, and frankly, it gave me the chills yet again.

"And a mermaid's wrath is no petty thing," Gramps finally continues. "Young women have vanished from the nearby village… It is said to be the mermaid's curse. As such, this monument was put up to mourn her," he finishes and throws a glance at the rock.

After a few moments of silence, as I review the story in my mind, Gramps finally faces me again. "… What do you think?" he asks. "Hard to call it romantic, but interesting nonetheless, yes?"

He gives me hopeful looks when he looks into my eyes, and I feel somewhat ashamed of myself for knowing that I won't live up to his expectations. "Ahh, uh… Sorry, don't know about all that," I randomly stutter. "But, uh, tell it to Seitaro, he likes stories 'n' stuff."

I was really sceptic about this "Mermaid Swamp" legend, but hey, I can't judge the believers of the myth for that, can I? Especially not a nice old coot that lets us stay in his huge goddamn luxury mansion. As I see it from that point of view, I suddenly feel even more ashamed of myself. But I'm not that good at acting anyway, so I shouldn't lie to him.

Luckily, he doesn't seem very offended, though. All he says is: "Ah, is that right," and then there's another, this time somewhat awkward, silence.

Suddenly I'm not so sure where to look anymore, so I nervously let my eyes wander, and I unintentionally start tapping the skin of my arms with my fingers. Gramps doesn't seem to notice that, though, but instead he adds: "Well, I've prepared dinner now, so come to the dining room if you would."

_Oh, thank God… _I immediately cheer up when hearing those news, and I can already picture the delicious meal in front of me. "Oooh, finally!" I exclaim happily, and I barely resist the urge to run straight by the old man and scurry into the house and to the kitchen at once. "Well, let's get a move on! I'm so hungry I could eat Yuuta if I had to."

As we walk, I don't think very much at all about that mermaid legend.

* * *

Inside, I can't help but to hurry up a little so that I get to the kitchen before Gramps has fetched the other fellas, and I make sure to put a little extra much of everything on my plate – I'm hungry, ok – before I sit down by the dining table. I can't wait to eat, though… So, actually, when my friends finally enter the dining room, I have already begun to stuff myself with the delish-dish.

As Seitaro sees me, the annoying punk gives me a long, long judgemental stare. "Really, Rin?" he says with arched eyebrows. "_Really? _We've been invited as guests by this nice old man, and you can't even get yourself to wait for us all to sit down for dinner together before stuffing yourself?"

As a response, I cease my chewing and instead teasingly start to lick my spoon in front of him and just barely allow the tip of my tongue to stick out; Yuka giggles; Yuuta doesn't even notice since he's already attacked the stove with the hot, reeking food placed upon it; Seitaro shoots toxic looks at me before following Yuka to the stove.

… Hey, I'm not ill-mannered… I'm just freakin' starved over here.

Minutes later, we're all gathered around the dining table – by then, I have already finished my seconds – and everyone is busy eating their food: Beef steaks, beans and rice. The others eat a bunch of yucky vegetables too, but I pass on that.

"You eat like a pig, you know that?" Seitaro attacks me again.

"Well, I see no reason for you to sit there and stare at me when I eat," I snap back. "Or perhaps you like it?" I give him a seductive/creepy smirk and batted eyelashes.

"_Oooh…!" _I hear coming from Yuuta whose face has cracked up into a wide grin, and who now seems to be holding back laughter, but when he sees the look that Seitaro gives him, he immediately shrinks in his chair and maintains his mouth shut. Goddammit, I was looking forward to rub it in Seitaro's face; it would've had a boosted effect if Yuuta'd joined me on it.

"You're both so immature," I hear Seitaro declare irritably. "And dumb; I have no idea whatsoever how you two graduated from elementary school."

"_Hey—"_

"Oh, come on, Seitaro!" Yuka interrupts, holding Yuuta and me back since – I at least – was practically ready to jump out of my chair and launch myself at the early-balding, ugly, mean gully-sack.

"Hey, what the hell is _that _supposed to mean?!" I exclaim, aghast. "I did just _fine _back then – I – maybe I had some trouble when we were supposed to read out loud – and history – and Japanese – b-but that doesn't mean that you get the right to throw the shit in my face—"

"I'm stating fact, that's all," Seitaro huffs and arrogantly dismisses my retorts.

… _Bastard. _

"Calm down, Rin, he's just teasing you," Yuka says kindly and gently pats my back; careful not to strike another nerve and still quite massage-like, and somehow she effectively manages to make me calm down somewhat. Yuka's probably the only one who can do that now the days.

I murmur something grumpy and not-really-audible to the others, but I silently obey and politely sit down again just to finish my third dish, although much more violently than before. Surrounded and corrupted by the dark thundercloud in my mind that constantly tells me to punch Seitaro in the face, and heedless as I am, I don't even notice that Yuka hasn't even touched her food until Seitaro points it out a while later.

"… Do you feel bad?" he adds when Yuka doesn't reply to the question immediately, with a hint of concern in his voice.

That's when I finally react and lift my head to look at Yuka, and my eyebrows sink into a frown at what I see: She _does _look a little pale. But we've been outside all day, so maybe she's just caught a cold or something? Considering the shitty weather, I wouldn't be surprised.

"Oh no, I'm just fine," Yuka hurriedly assures us when both Seitaro and Yuuta are looking at her (I'm still not completely finished with my meal just yet, so my focus is maintained on the plate.)

When Seitaro gives her a sceptic look, she continues: "I think I'm just a little… too tired to have an appetite."

…

… _Well ok, then I guess everything's fine! _I instantly conclude and then concentrate on scooping a way-too-big-portion of beef into my mouth and nearly choke myself as I stubbornly force myself to swallow it, practically whole and without chewing at all. And I must've swallowed it _really _loudly since all of my comrades turn to stare at me; I subsequently return their questioning stare… plus a nice, long – almost hurtful – burp, right across the table.

Seitaro's and Yuuta's eyes instantly widen, and I suppose Yuka can't help but to scowl at me.

…

"… Really, Rin?" I can't even make out what kind of tone Seitaro used when he spoke. Maybe just plain disgust.

"'xcuse me," I apologize politely and inhale deeply. _"Whooh..! _That actually hurt a little…" I add and pinch my eyelids together in a pained grimace.

"You just had to, didn't you."

"Yeah, but now I kinda regret it…"

I give myself a couple of light jabs on my chest, maintaining the grimace while the others sit motionless without saying a word. Jeez, why create such an awkward silence zone just because a lady did something completely natural? I mean, come on; they do it too.

But when we've been sitting in silence long enough, Yuuta turns to Yuka again, with his most compassionate grin on his lips. "Hey, Yuka, don't worry about the dishes; we'll clean up here and you can go rest."

Yuka seems to ponder for a while before she faces the brown haired boy again. "… Alright… Thanks, Yuuta," she says gratefully, and gives the rest of us a warm and reassuring smile before carefully putting her plate in the sink and leaving the room.

As she closes the door to the dining room behind her, I finish my third dish in one final sweep, let out a deep, satisfied sigh and rise from the table as well. "_Aaaahhh_, yummy, yummy! Tha' was great. Y'all clean up now."

"Hey, hang on a minute, where are you going?" Seitaro says as I head for the door. "Why do we have to clean up after you? Do it yourself, Yamayucky!"

I stop by the doorstep, one hand on the doorknob and the other one by my face, the tip of my index finger placed on my bottom lip as I look slightly upwards. "Yeeaahh…" I say slowly and turn my head to face them with a sly smirk. "Work on your names while you're at it."

And with that said, I leave.

* * *

I didn't bother to check on the others that night, since they were probably just gonna nag about me not cleaning up the dishes, so instead of taking the tour around the house, I go straight to bed after taking a nice bath in the mansion's big bathroom – hell, my bathtub at home isn't even half as the size as this one -, I lay down, pull up the sheets and curl up like a squirrel on the fluffy mattress. And whaddya know; I fall asleep immediately.

…

…

… _Huh…?_

…

To my surprise, the next thing I knew, I was back in the blue-greenish ocean, the same one like when I had fallen asleep in the car.

…

… _I'm underwater again, aren't I? It's the same dream…_

… _Must be a dream… I'm not drownin', and my eyes don't even hurt… _

…

I wasn't worried since I realizing that I wasn't drowning and thus knew that it was a dream again, but to me, this was still very weird since I usually don't experience the same dream twice… or rather, come to think of it, it had never ever happened to me before.

I carefully try to turn my head and move my body, but just like last time, I can't move my body at all. I can only stare forward.

… _Can't move a muscle… So weird…_

…

… …_?_

Surprisingly, just like last time, a shadow emerges from the distance; or, maybe not so distant after all, but I still couldn't make out the figure that well, because of all the water.

… _Is it the same one as before…?_

…

… _Who the hell is it? Stop staring at me…_

…

The shadow didn't respond to my telepathic thoughts, but only continued to stare. It remained motionless.

…

… _Stop staring… _

… _I'll kill ya…_

…

…

The sunlight through the window wakes me up, and I open my eyes.

… _Such an odd dream, _I think as I slowly sit up and remove a few curls of hair from my face. _Two times in a row too…_

Really weird. I pull up my legs and rest my chin on my knees for a while, as I ponder and wonder while scowling at the wall. I'm really not superstitious or anything, and I certainly don't believe in silly myths and fairytales about mermaid swamps and ghosts and stuff like that…

… But seriously, what was up with these dreams…?

* * *

**Feedback is always appreciated^^**


	3. Dawn of Strange Incidents

**AN: If you, by any chance, would feel offended by Rin's – or any other character's – behaviour in this story, then please let me know. And feedback is always welcomed with open arms!**

* * *

**Dawn of Strange Incidents**

_Rin's POV_

Surprisingly enough, the first thing I feel like doing as I bounce out of my bed is to pull a nice ol' prank on the boys; and for an extra amount of amusement, I'd like Yuka to join me on it. Because, naturally, almost everything is a lot more hilarious if you have a trusted friend who can laugh with you about it later (the boys – the victims – certainly won't.) So naturally, in order to achieve my absolutely-not-egoistic-at-all goal, after getting dressed I immediately patter my way to the eastern side of the first floor and – without knocking, and without any heads-up whatsoever – I swing the door open and fling myself inside with my most cheerful morning grin placed upon my lips.

"Rise and shine, Yuka!" I say happily and approach her bed. Though, as I walk up beside it, I can't help but to feel a little perplexed: Usually Yuka is the one who's always up with the lark, and it's not often that I get the chance to "rise and shine" her way out of her bed. But as I gaze down on her face, I realize that she looks kind of worn out.

"Bad sleep?" I ask with an arched eyebrow. "Sure looks like it."

Yuka replies with something between a girlish snort and a joking sigh as she gazes back up at me with her pretty brown eyes; I can't help but notice that a pair of faint, but still visible, bags have emerged beneath her eyes. "No, no, I slept great," she assures me, and I actually can't make out any trace of sarcasm in her voice – which perhaps is not that weird since Yuka rarely tends to sarcasm – and still, the only thing that her eyes betray is plain fatigue.

When she notices my sceptically raised eyebrows, she continues: "Sorry, Rin, but… to be honest, I don't feel that great… a little cold… I… Can I rest a little longer?" she looks up at me with a playful pout, but again, I can't help but notice that it seems kind of strained.

I roll my eyes. "Of course you can. You gonna be okay?" I add when I react to the lack of response. "Don't push yourself, ugly."

"Don't worry," Yuka replies and carefully lies down her head on her white pillow again. "Maybe I just caught a cold from that fog…"

I nod; yeah, that's probably it. I should consider myself lucky for not getting sick myself, speaking of which. I subsequently replay the idea of pulling the prank in my head, but it ultimately goes awry as my tired friend meets my gaze. Ok, she really looks kind of pale; maybe I should just leave her? She's not up for the prank anyhow…

"… Well, like I said, don't push yourself," I repeat and clear my throat. "And don't worry about the car… we'll get it all fixed for ya, you'll see." I give her a reassuring wink before I abandon her side and patter toward the exit.

"Oh, and Rin?"

I make halt by the doorstep and throw a glance over my shoulder. "Yeah?"

Yuka looks like she's hesitating for a moment before – to my slight annoyance – she discreetly asks: "… Try not to be so rough on the boys now. They've been up almost all night trying to get the car going and searching for some kind of map to help us orientate… I think they're already kind of exhausted; probably even more than me."

…

Goddammit; now that Yuka's told me to be nice to them, I would unavoidably feel awful if I now behaved inappropriate… even though I'd very much like to, especially to Seitaro since he'd mocked me for not being a first-class intelligent genius in school. Indeed, now was _really _not the time to tell Yuka that I had plotted a what-was-intended-to-be funny prank-pulling just a couple of minutes ago.

When she sees my noticeably pained face, she promptly bats her eyelashes and pouts. "Pleeeaase…?"

Come on, she knows very well that it's extremely hard to say no to her requests; I respond with an eye rolling and a low snort. "Yeah, yeah, fine…" And with that said, I exit the room, close the door behind me and head toward the living room without waiting to see if Yuka has something else to add.

Entering the living room, I am a little surprised to find both Seitaro and Yuuta facing each other on each side of a dark wooden table in a pair of green couches. I call out a swift "good-morning" as I approach the couches, and I place my hands on my hips as I position myself by the table, facing my two comrades.

"Dang, you guys are up early," I point out. "What's the big deal?"

I notice two empty bowls and a pair of spoons and plates on the table, decorated with remains of cereals and some crumbs of bread, and I jump to the conclusion that my two comrades have already eaten breakfast; by the looks of the remains' quality, I would assume that they finished a while ago.

"Early?!" Yuuta exclaims as he spins around in his seat to gaze at me, rather perplexed. "It's almost 10 am!"

I blink; _that _late? Wow, I must've really slept pretty deep. _And Yuka must be really, really tired if she stays in bed up till _this _hour, _I come to think of. And that would explain the looks of the guys' breakfast remains as well.

"Uh, but anyway," Yuuta continues and my attention is drawn back to him. "I checked on the car, and it's still not looking any better."

"Still?"

Seitaro nods. "Couldn't be out of gas though… It's so old, I wouldn't rule out it just falling apart," he adds, and Yuuta shoots him a dirty look as he says so. "But whatever it is, how are we gonna leave?"

…

Before neither Yuuta nor me get the chance to respond, the door suddenly swings open and Gramps enters. I turn my head and grin welcomingly; haven't seen him since yesterday night at the dinner table, when he told us that we were free to use the bath if we wanted to (which I naturally took advantage of before snoozing.)

When he sees us, he raises his fuzzy eyebrows in curiosity. "… Oh?" he says. "What's happening here?"

And as he walks up to us to join the conversation, Yuuta tells him about the car's condition. "… So, uh, yeah, old man," he continues when he's done with the somewhat dramatically prolonged version of the short story worthy of only a sentence or two. "Sorry, but can we stay a while longer?"

The old man doesn't answer at once, and for a split second, I'm getting a little nervous that he might just tell us to get our asses out of the house ASAP. But luckily, he doesn't; instead, you might say that he tells us the exact opposite:

"That is unfortunate," he finally says with a frown, causing a number of new wrinkles to appear on his already pretty wrinkly forehead. "As a matter of fact, I have to go to the nearby village to attend a memorial service for a few days."

I didn't catch a third of what he'd just said, but as I turn to glance at Seitaro – he always understands, so there's almost no need for me to – I find him looking somewhat troubled, which in turn makes me feel worried too.

"That right…" Seitaro revises the situation by crossing his arms and gazing at the table without appearing to see it for a while. "Well, we'll be out soon then. We wouldn't want to stay too long."

… _Hang on, what? _I gaze at Seitaro, looking rather like a question mark."But how will we get anywhere without…?"

"Even without the car, we should find our way walking," Seitaro replies, though I'm not very fond of that idea. "We could just leave the car and take the train home…"

Again, not very fond of that idea; and did they realize that they didn't even have a map? "But how will we find our way when we don't even have—" I begin, but surprisingly enough, the one who ends up interrupting me is Gramps.

"No, no, it's quite alright for you to stay," he assures us. "I'm the only one who lives here, after all, and I would quite appreciate someone looking after it."

…

_Gramps, you're a lifesaver._

"Huh? Really?" Yuuta asks.

"Indeed," Gramps confirms. "And you wouldn't get far walking in the mountains. Certainly not in this fog… … You're more than welcome to stay until your car is fixed," he adds. "Just please don't do anything dangerous like walking around in the mountains."

"Rin," Seitaro deadpans.

"What?!" Oh, come on, seriously; _why _would I do that when _I'm_ the one who desperately insisted on staying inside and not leaving the house without a map nor a car? God, they really have no faith in me at all, do they?

Instead of snapping back though, I ultimately decide to see this one by, and I turn to the old man with a truly grateful beam. "Thanks a lot, gramps! We owe you one. Or two, technically," I add as I come to think of the previous night. "But, yeah, thanks."

"We really appreciate it," Seitaro concurs, and he even gets to his feet to shake the old coot's hand, while Yuuta constantly nods in assent.

"Are you leaving now?" I ask when Seitaro and Yuuta have retired.

"Yes," Gramps replies and seems ready to walk to the door. "I must go now if I want to be there on time."

I stand still and ponder for a while, before I lighten up and give the old coot another beam. "Well, then I'll walk you to the door!" I promptly insist, and I walk ahead of the slightly stunned old man to open the living door room for him.

He blinks a few times at me, but then he simply rolls with it and allows me to lead him to his door. A little weird is it, I can't deny that; this was _his _house, after all, so in normal circumstances, _he _would've been the one to walk himself to the door. But who cares about those stupid morals?

As we stop by the main entrance, Gramps turns to face me. "Well then, I'll be heading out now."

I nod. "Yeah. Don't worry, we'll kick some butts if any burglars would try and steal from you."

"Fortunately, I don't think you'll have to worry about that," Gramps chuckles. "But keep an eye on any fires. And again, don't go walking in the—"

"Mountains, yeah yeah!" I interrupt and wave my hand impatiently. "Don't worry, we'll hold down the fort. Don't go dyin' yourself, you hear?"

He gives me an amused smile and yet another chuckle. "Haha, I'll be careful. So long."

He gives me a short bow with his head, turns around and exits the mansion, leaving me alone in the hallway.

* * *

_Seitaro's POV_

"Why exactly are we the ones doing this again, when, in a justified world, _Rin _is the one who should be doing it instead?" I ask as I pour yet another droplet of detergent on the dirty plate in the water-filled and soapy sink.

As soon as Rin had walked off with the old man, me and Yuuta were obligated to collecting the dishes and, for some silly reason, since nobody else would do it, we are now cleaning up after us – _again – _even though Yamamonkey undoubtedly owes us one since she didn't clean up after herself yesterday.

"Seitaro, these are today's dishes, and they are only ours; Rin was probably sleeping up until the time she came to us, and I bet she hasn't eaten breakfast yet," Yuuta replies from where he stands at about a meter's distance to my left, wiping the wet, clean plates with a flowery towel.

"She made us do the dirty work last night, so I think it would be just fair if she would've bothered to do it for us this time today," I press on persistently.

I throw Yuuta a strict glance to confirm that he agrees with me, but to my temporary annoyance, he seems but all focused on the plate he's holding in his hand. I'm not sure if that is intentionally meant as a compliment or just a nosy statement, but the brown haired boy really seems to be attacking the plate as if the Prime Minister himself has assigned him to it and would likely give him a mighty reward if he performs the wiping perfect thoroughly; his eyes are literally glowing with determination as he races the towel up, down, up, down, left, right, and up and down again, rubbing the delicate, sparkling clean surface with utmost care.

"… Yuuta, aren't you taking this a little bit too seriously?" I cautiously wonder.

"Huh? What, no, I'm not," he hastily replies; seriously, the guy even seems to be out of breath.

"Then slow down a little bit. It's a plate, not a half-tamed tiger."

"Oh, but, Seitaro," Yuuta ceases to wipe for a second to look at me with fire in his eyes, face blazing red from heat and overexertion and his forehead covered with beads of perspiration. "I think that every task you're given in life should be done with extreme precision and solicitude, not to mention that you still need to give it your all and fight for succes!"

…

"Solicitude?"

"Extreme carefulness—"

"I know what it means, stupid," I promptly cut him off. "But since when does a simpleton like you use words like that?"

"Found it in a dictionary!" Yuuta beams at me, looking extremely proud of himself.

…

"… You really are an oddball, you know that?" is my only reply.

"Hahaha, yeah, so I have been told!" Yuuta laughs and scratches his head before remembering that his hands are covered in water and soap. "Eek…! But hey," he redraws his hand, "it's not that bad: After all, we're just doing the friendly old man a favour by doing this. And I'm sure Rin will make it up to us one day or another," he adds when I don't respond.

I snort; "Yeah, well, whatever the case, I'm not doing _her _dishes today either," I huff and throw a look in distaste at the filthy – and now pretty bad-smelling – plate that has remained untouched at the dinner table since yesterday. I had refused to wash it after Rin just upped and left, and I didn't want anyone else to do it either: Rin should do it herself, when she'd found her long awaited manners (which, honestly, might take a while considering how well he knew her.)

Yuuta groans; "Oh, come on, Seitaro! You _still _haven't taken care of that plate? For Christ's sake, this place is gonna have _ants!" _

"No, it won't," I confidently assure him. "And if it does, I'll just spray it with Badger's Anti-Bug Shake & Spray."

"_And you're accusing me for being an oddball…" _I catch him mutter.

"What's that?"

"You're brilliant."

"Good."

…

…

"But, you're right," I eventually confess after a minute or two, as I hand Yuuta the final, clean plate and turn around to lean against the bench.

"About what?"

"That carefree Yamamonkey hasn't eaten anything today, and we're running short on food supplies," I remind him, ending my sentence with a short self-conscious sigh and borrowing Yuuta's towel to wipe my own hands. "I might as well go tell her to force something down before we run out."

"Yeah, you do that," Yuuta replies with a friendly grin as I return the soaked towel to him. "I'm sure she will appreciate it."

Not sure what he meant by that, I leave the dishes to him and march out of the kitchen. As I approach the lined-up wooden doors leading to our private rooms, I suddenly come to think of Yuka, lying in her bed behind one of them, and I decide that I will check on her after enlightening my other female friend of the current situation. As I reach Rin's door, I give it a few short, impatient knocks and wait for an exasperated and noticeably loud groan to make itself heard from inside.

…

No response.

I knock again, a little harder.

No response.

"… Hey, Yamamonkey," I call out, loud enough for her to hear me and give the door yet a few knocks. "Care to answer to the doorknocking?"

Still no response.

… _She can't possibly have gone back to bed, can she? _I think and knock again, yet a little harder. "Hey, Rin! It's me, Seitaro!"

Silence.

"… Rin, are you in there?" I ask, and now I cease my knocking and proceed to move my hand down to the small, black doorknob. "I'm coming in, okay?" I inform cautiously before I slide the door open and stick my head inside.

"Rin?" I say, but I still get no answer whatsoever. And upon closer inspection – none needed – the room appears to be empty too; her clothes lay in a messy pile upon the unmade bed, the sheets hanging down flatly over the edge, vaguely touching the green fluffy carpet, but no trace of any living creature inside these wooden walls. I wrinkle my nose at the messy bed, but internally tell myself that it can wait for later, after I find Rin.

Just as I'm about to turn around though, I swear that I momentarily catch a glimpse of something in the corner of my eye, appearing in the middle of the room, and I instantly spin back around. "Rin?!"

…

… _There's nothing here, _I tell myself after eyeing the whole room for a second time. _But I could swear that I saw a shadow just now…_

…

"But in any case, she's not here, huh," I slowly mutter after a few seconds of pondering. "… Well then, where…?"

"_GWAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"_

The startling and sudden hair-rising shrilling scream that echoes through the halls and literally causes the air to convulse sends a sharp twinge through my entire body as I immediately, despite the high-pitched tone, recognize to whom the voice belongs; feeling my pulse increasing significantly and my eyes widening in horror, I fling my head around to glare out the door and into the hall that leads to the bathroom, from where the scream came from. _"… Rin...?!"_

My body acts before my mind does, and I spurt out of Rin's room, through the hall and pull the break, skid and stop dead for a split second just outside the door to the bathroom, and the next split second, without thinking, I do the exact, precise thing that I previously told my blonde friend never _ever _to do: without any heads-up whatsoever, I automatically and bluntly force the door open and barge straight into the bathroom; "Hey! What's the ma…!" I begin, but I am ultimately silenced by what I see, and when I finally realize what I've just done, it is already too late: A completely nude Rin is facing the huge bathtub with her back to me, and when she hears my voice inside the room, she slowly turns around to glare at the unexpected intruder, looking almost twice as startled as me, and then establishes the most tense, awkward silence that I have experienced in a long, long time.

…

…

…

"… Wha…" Rin begins with a low voice; I don't even get the chance to feel my face heat up and reek of embarrassment and shame before she momentarily transforms into a demon with the terrifying intent to kill and is right on me. "'THE HELL ARE YOU BARGIN IN ON ME FOR, YOU GODDAMN PUUUUNK?!"

* * *

And thus the new alias "Pervert Punk" was founded and unintentionally established and marked upon my petty forehead for all eternity thereafter.

* * *

…

"… For real though, this water…" I take yet another step closer to the bathtub and lean over the edge to get a better look, but the horrible stench causes me to redraw with a wrinkled nose. "It is so muddy. Just how gross are you…"

Indeed, the water was muddy; it was pretty much consisting of nothing but deep greenish sludge, and I find it hard to believe that it was this filthy when Rin got in the bath, since she probably would've died from the offensive smell.

"You shut your MOUTH, that AIN'T the problem!" a very angered and offended Rin retorts heatedly, and I honestly can't blame her. "The water just got all muddy! Poof, like that!"

Sounds very unreliable of an opinion to me, especially coming from her, but I feel like if I speak my mind right now, I'm not a hundred percent certain that I will still be able to walk after this hour, and I'm not taking that risk.

"… Alright, jokes aside, then," I finally say and turn around to face Rin, who now has a yellow towel tightly wrapped around her body and, dressed in a flustered frown, returns a moody and confounded scowl at me. "Isn't this swamp water?"

"Huh?" Rin responds to my suggestion with one raised eyebrow. "And why would it be in the bath, genius?"

_In case you didn't know, _all _our water in here comes from outside, _I inform her in my head. "I dunno, maybe the plumbing's screwed up," I reply after replaying my first answer in my head. "Could have mixed in some swamp water… though the shower and toilet look okay."

Rin casts a momentary glance over her shoulder at the toilet, but quickly fixes her eyes on me again. She looks like she wants more of a proper answer, but unfortunately she is heading for disappointment, since that is the only logic theory that I can come up with, and thereby conclude that there's really nothing we can do about it, since none of us are plumbers.

"Well, no baths for a while, I guess; we'll have to hold out 'til the old man comes back," is all I say to her, and I don't think that's going to change since I find it hard to believe that she is ready to make that big of a sacrifice such as to go down underground in the filth and sludge and stench to fix the plumbing. _And frankly, she doesn't have enough knowledge to do it anyhow, _I add in my mind. Which was probably true.

"… I'm out," I add when I am done with the constant awkward silences and cold glares, and I politely try to avoid eye contact as I pass the blonde female; as I open the bathroom door and leave, the last thing I hear before closing the door behind me and quickly marching off, is Rin's frustrated groans and the sound of her angrily stomping the floor, as if placing blame on it for their current situation and the recent incident, of which I'm almost certain that they would both like to erase their memory.

* * *

**I have to say, I found that moment very funny whilst playing ;D Poor Seitaro, though. **


End file.
